Athletic brace



H. C. PALLADINO ATHLETIC BRACE July 15, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FiledMarch 6, 1968 INVENTOR. HENRY PALLADINO ATTORNEY July 15, 1969 H. C.PALLADINO ATHLETIC BRACE Filed March 6, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

HENRY PALLAD 1 N0 BYB ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,454,963 ATHLETICBRACE Henry C. Palladino, 666 E. 233rd St., Bronx, NY. 0466 Filed Mar.6, 1968, Ser. No. 710,929 Int. Cl. A41d 13/06 US. Cl. 2-24 7 ClaimsABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A protective knee brace for wear by aparticipant in a body contact sport such as football. The knee bracecomprises first and second spaced horizontal resilient tubular membersadaptable to be circumferentially secured to the femur and tibialportions of the knee joint respectively. The horizontal members areinterconnected by a plurality of vertical tubular members at spacedintervals along the lengths of the horizontal members, with the verticalmembers being made of material sufficiently resilient to allowsubstantially unimpeded flexure of the knee joint.

The present invention relates to an athletic body brace and moreparticularly to a protective leg brace suitable for wear by aparticipant in sports events involving recurrent and heavy body contactsuch as football.

Various sports such as football, involve recurrent and heavy bodycontact between the participants. Accordingly, in order to prevent or atleast minimize, serious injury to the opposing contestants, variousprotective devices having been provided to protect various portions ofthe body. Such protective devices include a helmet having an attachedface guard, shoulder pads, rigid athletic supporter and paddedover-the-knee pants. It has been found however, that during footballcontests, the knee joint, which links the femur and tibial bones andpivotally supports about 80% of the body weight, has been highlyvulnerable to injury, particularly as a result of impact inflicted onthe tibial bone by a tackle or body block applied thereto by an opposingcontestant, creating a large torque force on the knee ligaments. Accordingly, the knee ligaments are required to resist large torque aswell as directly applied impact forces.

It is appreciated that in order to be practical, any protective deviceto be worn by a participant in an athletic contest should not undulyimpede body movement thereat. Furthermore such a device should notpresent a hazard to an opposing contestant when he should come intobodily contact therewith.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a kneebrace which is operative to protect the wearers knee from torque as wellas direct impact forces.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a knee bracein accordance with the foregoing object which is suflicientlylightweight, compact and flexible to allow full and easy flexure of theknee such as during the course of running or jumping.

In accordance with the principles of the present invention there isprovided a protective knee brace having first and second spacedhorizontal members adaptable to be circumferentially secured to thefemur and tibial portions of the knee joint respectively. There isfurther provided a plurality of vertical members interconnecting thefirst and second horizontal members at spaced intervals along thelengths of the horizontal members. The vertical members are made ofmaterial of sufficient resiliency to allow substantially impeded flexureof the knee joint.

The features of the invention which are believed to be novel are setforth with particularlity in the appended claims. The invention itself,however, both as to its organization and method of operation, togetherwith further objects and features thereof may best be understood wtihreference to the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a knee brace in the open condition, inaccordance with the principles of the present invention in a preferredembodiment thereof.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a football player wearing the knee braceof FIG. 1, i.e., with the knee brace in the closed condition.

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view of the knee brace of the presentinvention, in its closed condition, through the patella of the wearer,taken along the line 3-3 in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an elevational sectional view of the knee brace of FIG. 3taken along the line 44.

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the knee brace of FIG. 3 showingthe wearers knee and the knee brace in its flexed condition.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a leg brace constructed in accordancewith the principles of the present invention in a second embodimentthereof, showing the leg brace in its open condition.

FIG. 7 is a front elevational view of the leg brace of FIG. 6 astypically worn slightly below the knee.

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a knee brace 10 constructed inaccordance with the principles of the present invention, in the opencondition. Knee brace 10 is seen to comprise parallel flexible upper andlower tubing length support members 12 and 14 which are suitably securedto elastic wrap 16 on its inside surface 17 along the upper and loweredges thereof respectively, such as by stitching 18. Tubing lengthsupport members 12 and 14 are interconnected along spaced intervalsthereof by flexible vertical tubing length connecting members 20, 22 and24. Although the drawings depict horizontal tubing length members 12 and14 being interconnected by three vertical tubing length members 20, 22and 24, it is understood that the number and spacing of the verticaltubing lengths may vary in accordance with the degree of flexibility andstrength required of knee brace 10.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, knee brace 10 is typically -worn by wrappingelastic wrap 16 around the knee joint 26 with inside wrap surface 17applied directly onto knee joint 26 so that upper tube member 12circumferentially engages the femur portion 28 of knee joint 26, andlower tube member 14 similarly circumferentially engages the tibialportion 30 of knee joint 26, whel the patella 32 is engaged by wrapinside surface 17 as best shown in FIG. 5.

It is understood that the spacing between upper and lower tube members12 and 14 will vary with the size of the athletic participant for whomit is intended to be worn. By way of example, for an athleticparticipant of average build, upper and lower members 12 and 14 would bespaced approximately 8" apart, while vertical members 20 and 22 would beapproximately 1" apart, and members 22 and 24 approximately 2 /2" apart.

As shown in FIG. 3, upper and lower members 12 and 14 will have a lengthdimension such that when knee brace 10 is tightly wrapped around thewearers knee joint 26, the opposite ends 14a and 14b of lower member 14will be contiguous, as shown in FIG. 3, as will be opposite ends 12a and12b of upper member 12. Elastic wrap 16 will have an overall lengthdimension suificient to facilitate the above engagement of opposite endsof members 12 and 14 respectively and to permit suitable fasteningtogether of the opposite ends of wrap 16 so that knee brace 10 will fitsecurely around the wearers knee joint 26.

It is understood that various fastening devices may be employed toeffect a snug and secure fit of knee brace 10 by means of wrap 16 asshown in FIG. 3. By wav of example, wrap 16 may be provided with a pairof strips of self gripping fastening fabric marketed under the trademarkVelcro, whereby a releasable adhesive between matching fastening fabricstrips is effected simply bv pressing together the two opposing matchingVelcro strips and releasing the same by pulling the two opposing Velcro"strips apart with sufficient force. FIGS. 1 and 3 depict the use of suchfastening means, wherein wrap 16 is provided with one fastener strip 34secured, such as by sewing, to inside surface 17 of elastic wrap 16'atone end thereof, and a matching fastener strip 36 secured to the outsidesurface 19 of wrap 16 at the opposite end thereof. Accordingly, whenknee brace is wrapped around the wearers knee joint 26, wrap 16 willoverlap opposite end portions, which when pressed togetherjwill causefastening strips 34 and 36 to grip together in secure engagement, toprovide a sung fit of knee brace 10 about knee joint 26. It isunderstood that wrap 16 is made of suitable material which issufiiciently elastic to allow the knee joint 26 to flex in the mannershown in FIG. 5.

The desired characteristics of the material used for tubing lengths 12,14, 20, 22 and 24, are toughness, resiliency and lightweight. By way ofexample, suitable tubing for members 12, 14, 20, 22 and 24 mayconstitute a semi-pure gum rubber vacuum tubing having a /1." wall, boreand an overall diameter of 78", such as the type suitable for use withaspirator pumps and mechanical air pumps.

As shown in FIG. 5, although both horizontal members 12 and 14 as wellas vertical members 20, 22, and 24 may be made of the above mentionedrubber tubing, vertical members 20, 22 and 24 will have a greater degreeof flexibility to accommodate flexure of the knee joint 26 as shown inFIG. 5.

Although a slight amount of rotation of the tibia 30 in its long axis ispermitted during fiexion, the principal axis of movement of the kneejoint is in the transverse direction, thereby classifying the knee joint26 as a hingejoint. It is well known that the tibial and femur musclesare substantially more massive and stronger than the knee ligaments,which functionally interconnect the two at the knee joint. Accordingly,if an impact torque force is applied to the tibia 30 in the lateraldirection exemplified by arrows 38a and 38b, that torque force, insteadof being resisted primarily by the knee ligaments, will have asubstantial portion thereof transmitted to the femur muscles viavertical members 20, 22, and 24, which in conjunction with members 12and 14 tend to absorb a substantial portion of this force because oftheir resilient nature, and hence to decelerate rotational movement oftibial portion 30 relative to femur portion 28. In this way, asubstantial portion of the impact torque force applied to tibial portion30 will be absorbed by the femur muscles which are more massive andstronger than the knee joint ligaments, and hence are more able toresist such relatively large impact torque forces commonly encounteredby participants in athletic contests, such as football games.

It will be recognized that a sudden impact force applied to the leg atthe positions and directions depicted by arrows 38b and 39 when the legis in the erect condition, tend to cause the leg to buckle. However, theuse of the knee brace 10 tends to reduce such a buckling effect by theaction of vertical members 20, 22 and 24 in conjunction with horizontalmembers 12 and 14, which because of their resiliency tend to absorb alarge portion of the inflicted impact force, to decelerate rotationalmovement of tibial portion 30 and to divert a large portion of thetorque force from the knee ligaments to femur portion 28 which, aspointed out above, is better suited to absorb such impact force.

A further advantage provided by knee brace 10 resides in the fact thatmembers 12, 14 as well as 20, 22 and 24 tend to absorb any impact forceinflicted directly thereon, thereby providing a further degree ofprotection against impact injuries.

Referring to FIG. 6, in a further embodiment of the present inventionthere is provided a leg brace 40 which may be worn circumferentiallysecured to the tibia 30 in the manner shown in FIG. 7, in order toprovide protection of the tibia against impact inflicted during athleticcontests such as football games.

In'FIG. 6 leg brace 40 is shown in its open condition and is seen tocomprise a flexible tubular member 42 having an elliptical shapedconfiguration and including a pair of tubular extensions 44 and 46extending outwardly in opposite directions from member 42 along thedirection of its major axis. By way of example, members 42,44 and 46 maycomprise the same material as that of horizontal members 12 and 14 ofknee brace 10. In a manner similar to knee brace 10, leg brace 40 may besuitably secured to an elastic wrap 48 such as by stitching 50, 'withwrap 48 being provided with Velcro type fastening strips 52 and 54 toeffect a snug and secure fit of leg brace 40 in the manner depicted byFIG. 7. As in the case of knee brace 10, members 42, 44 and 46 are sizedso that when brace 40 is wrapped around the tibia in a manner similar tothat of brace 10, the opposite ends 44a and 46a of member 44 and 46respectively will be contiguous.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by US. Letters Patent is:

1. A protective brace comprising first and second horizontal spacedmembers adaptable to be circumferentially secured to the femur andtibial portions of the knee joint respectively, at least one verticalmember interconnecting said first and second horizontal members, saidvertical members being made of material of sufficient resiliency toallow substantially unimpeded fiexure of the knee joint of the wearer.

2. A protective brace as defined in claim 1 wherein there is included aplurality of said vertical members interconnecting said first and secondhorizontal members at spaced intervals along the respective lengths ofsaid horizontal members.

3. A protective brace as defined in claim 2 wherein said horizontalmembers are made of resilient material to allow fiexure of the femur andtibial muscles of the wearer.

4. A protective brace as defined in claim 3 wherein said verticalmembers comprise lengths of resilient tubing.

5. A protective brace as defined in claim 4 wherein said horizontalmembers comprise lengths of resilient tubing.

6. A protective brace as defined in claim 2 including an elastic wraphaving said horizontal and vertical members secured to one surface ofsaid wrap for circumferentially securing said one surface of said wrapto the knee joint of the wearer whereby said first and second membersare circumferentially secured to the femur and tibial portions of theknee joint respectively.

7. A protective brace as defined in claim 6 wherein said wrap comprisesan elongated sheet of elastic material having releasable self grippingfastening means at at least one end thereof to efiect secure engagementof said one surface of said wrap with the knee joint of the wearer.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 871,760 11/1907 Long 2241,055,040 3/1913 Herron et a1. 224 2,652,565 9/1953 MacLellan 2242,943,859 7/1960 Koski et al. 128-165 XR 3,338,028 8/1967 Freeman128-165 XR JAMES R. BOLER, Primary Examiner

